Eviction Diversion Tracker

Welcome to the Eviction Diversion Tracker, a Texas Housers resource that allows users to understand and interpret data related to our efforts to make evictions in Texas rare and fair. The resource currently consists of two dashboards:

• Eviction Case Dashboard: Tracks new eviction cases and case rates in Texas’ 254 counties.
• Emergency Rental Assistance Dashboard (Archived): Tracks the efficiency and equitability of Covid-19 rent relief distribution in Texas.

You can explore both dashboards below.

Eviction Dashboard

This dashboard visualizes what we know about the state of evictions in Texas, based on eviction case numbers reported to the Texas Office of Court Administration by local Justice of the Peace courts in the state.

*The Texas Eviction Case Tracker has been temporarily taken down while we work on improvements. We are working to ensure timely updates and increased usability of the dashboard and will have it back in operation as soon as possible.*

How to use the dashboard 

Get information about evictions cases for Texas and individual counties:

When you open the dashboard, information is displayed for the state of Texas as a whole. 

There are two ways to learn more about what is happening in individual counties:

1. Select a county from the list in the top-left of the dashboard. Clicking on your selection will change all of the dashboard elements to reflect the numbers for that county alone. 
2. On the map, click on any county to pull up a pop-up window that shows eviction case data for that county. 

Learn more by turning map layers on and off on the map:

The map has three layers that you can turn on and off. These layers show:

• The number of new eviction cases for the most recent month
• The rate of eviction cases per the number of renter households
• The amount of missing data due to Justice of the Peace courts not fulfilling their legal obligation to report their case data to the State.

To turn layers on and off, first click the layer “stack” icon in the top-right corner of the map. Then, click the “eyeball” icon next to each layer to turn it on or off. Please note that you can only view a layer that is low on the list by turning off the layers above it.

Read more about evictions and the methodology behind Texas Housers’ dashboard here.

Dashboard updates log (5/10/23)

Want more info, notice a bug, or have a suggestion? Email ben@texashousing.org

Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) Dashboard [Archived]

In early 2021, Texas Housers began collecting programmatic data from the 38 ERA programs in Texas to monitor their progress and assess their ability to deliver funds to households in need. Every quarter, we updated a dashboard with programs’ expenditure rates and demographic information about their recipients. Now that the majority of programs have depleted their funding, we have archived the ERA dashboard and share our final recommendations below. For more information about Texas Housers’ evaluation of ERA programs in Texas, read our report, ‘Emergency Rental Assistance in Texas: How it went and what happens now.’

What you should know

• Pre-existing experience, capacity, and infrastructure at the local level was a primary determinant of a jurisdiction’s success in distributing ERA, including the degree to which a local infrastructure for administering rental assistance was already established, access to community-based organizations with the capacity to assist program operations, and the willingness of local elected officials to facilitate effective eviction prevention work.
• Successful jurisdictions utilized strategies that promoted efficiency and equity, such as monitoring impact and making mid-course corrections, reducing barriers for marginalized households, and coupling ERA efforts with additional eviction prevention measures.
• Some jurisdictions experienced unique challenges as a result of regional and cultural characteristics, like gaining the trust of low-income people in the Texas-Mexico border region, many of whom exhibited low trust in government.
• In some areas where multiple jurisdictions were administering ERA, a lack of coordination across programs caused administrative challenges and confusion amongst tenants.
• The Treasury’s flexible ERA guidelines privileged the jurisdictions that had established systems for rental assistance distribution, but did not meet the needs of those without the pre-existing conditions that were necessary for success.
• Disparities in ERA performance across jurisdictions inevitably arose. The federal government devolved the responsibility of keeping low-income renters housed through the COVID-19 crisis to local governments, but did not account for the fact that only some were in a position to excel in this task.

How to use the dashboard 

Select an ERA program from the list on the left and the dashboard’s elements will auto-adjust to display information about the selected program’s distribution. De-select the program before toggling to another. When no program is selected, the dashboard will sum all local and state program data to depict a snapshot of ERA distribution in Texas as a whole.

Want more info, notice a bug, or have a suggestion? Email erin@texashousing.org